How to Play Euchre Card Game

Euchre Card Game Overview

Euchre is a four-player trick based game having 2 teams of 2 with partners sitting across from one another. Then taking a standard 52 card deck, you will remove cards 2 through 8 which leaves 24 cards to be dealt. Each player will then be dealt 5 cards, dealing clockwise either 2 or 3 cards at a time. That is a decision left to the dealer.

For example: As the dealer you must deal clockwise but you can choose if you’d like to deal 2 cards to the left, then 3 to your partner (across from you), then 2 cards. If that is the method you choose, when dealing the second pass you must pass 3, 2, then 3. Ensuring all players have 5 cards. This method is the most common when playing Euchre, however it’s up to you as the dealer as long as you make 2 properly sequenced deals.

The remaining four cards not dealt are called the kitty. The top card of the kitty is then turned face up and players will begin bidding. This is where the dealer will ask all of the players in turn if they want that card to be the trump suit. If they agree they will respond with “pick it up” or “order it up” euchre-pick-it-up and the card is added to the dealer’s hand, who will have to discard a card face down in order to only have 5 cards. However, if they don’t agree on the face up card being trump, each player is given the chance to choose a different suit as trump. If they cannot agree on a trump, the hand is declared a misdeal and the deal is passed to the player on the dealer’s left. (This will change depending on the variation of Euchre you’ve decided to play.)

Once the trump suit has been selected, any card in that suit trumps (out-ranks) any other card. In Euchre the highest-ranking card is the Jack of the trump suit, followed by the other Jack of the same color. The cards are then ordered from highest to lowest A, K, Q, 10, and 9.